Taking Chances In a Chatroom
by Christie-Lois
Summary: No longer a one-shot! Bella moves to Forks and meets Edward online. AH BxE
1. Chapter 1

Hi! This is a one shot I randomly wrote sitting on MSN. I know this story has kind of been done before, but give it a chance :D

Link to Bella's second day outfit on my profile!!

* * *

**Thursday, March 18th 2009. Third Day in Hell.**

It was another boring rainy night in Forks. I couldn't believe I was here. I'd only spend a few weeks a year here during my childhood and I grew to despise this tiny piece of the Olympic Peninsula. It got so bad at one point, I found myself wishing the whole town would burn to the ground. With everyone safely evacuated, of course. I hated Forks, but I wasn't a murderer. I was too pretty for jail.

Who am I kidding? I'm not too pretty for anything. Don't get me wrong, I don't think I'm freakishly ugly or anything, I'm just the boring plain Jane. The person who couldn't find a niche to fit in a school of 3000.

I was too pale to be a cheerleader.

I was too clumsy to be an athlete.

I was too attention shy to join the drama or music clubs.

I had dignity, so the sluts were out of the question.

I would have been a geek, but I flunked trigonometry.

So instead, I became Bella – the über-cool, single, Austin-reading, Debussy-listening, maths-failing klutz.

And I was happy with that, because at least I was myself.

But now, next week, I begin junior year at Forks High School. Population 327, now 328. A place where I knew a grand total of zero people.

Of course, it would be easier if Forks wasn't so much like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory (only with less favourable assets – Johnny Depp and fuck loads of chocolate to name a few).

"_No one ever goes in, and no one ever comes out"._

I wonder if Roald Dahl had ever visited Forks. Maybe that's where that line originated from, because oh how true it was.

I feel like I should have followed that quote with an evil, menacing laugh, but I can't even be bothered to do that. I had been here three whole days. Seventy-two long, dragging hours and Forks had already drained my livelihood. Not that there was much of it in me to begin with.

I had absolutely nothing to do with myself, to busy myself with to escape this personal hell. Usually reading was my release, but I'd read the complete works of Jane Austin on the flight over and when Charlie migrated to the sofa for the latest football game last night. I say migrated because if I didn't force him out, I'm sure he'd spend the entire winter months perched on there. Probably wearing the same lumberjack shirt too. Gross.

I had also cleaned every inch of this house and cooked dinner, all before 6pm. It was still too early to turn in.

So I made a pro-active decision to check my e-mails. I was sure I would have one from Renee and it might buy me 15 minutes.

_You have 5 unread mail messages._

You have to be kidding me.

I clicked on the first link.

_Hi Sweetie! How was your flight? Is it raining? Say hi to Charlie! Mom x_

_Sent March 15__th__. 6.07pm._

_Bella honey, it's been three hours. You should have landed by now. Email me as soon as you get these. Mom x_

_Sent March 15__th__. 9.23pm._

I skipped the next couple of e-mails, already knowing what they would include. I clicked on the latest e-mail, received an hour ago.

_That's it Isabella Marie Swan. If you do not e-mail me back in the next two hours, so help me, I'm calling Charlie. It's been 3 days, for heavens sake! Mom x_

_Sent March 18__th__. 4.51pm._

Typical Renee. Always freaking out over the tiniest little things.

I opened a new message and began my reply.

_Hi Mom. _

_Calm down, I'm fine. I've just had a lot of unpacking to do and sorting out my room. _

_Forks is great, and of course it's raining. It's FORKS!!_

_I start school next week, which will be fun experience for me. I'm kind of nervous though, I've never been good meeting new people, but I'm sure once the dreaded first day is over, thing's will be great!_

_I met Jacob and Billy Black yesterday. Dad bought Billy's chevy for me as a welcoming present. How cool is that?! It's a faded red, almost orange colour, and has a big bulbous cap and rounded fenders. It's not the prettiest car in the world but I can totally see myself in it. It's really sturdy though, the kind you see at crash sites with only a paint scratch while the other car is totalled. I think it's an early 50's model, but Jacob rebuilt the engine so it runs perfectly, and I have a mechanic on hand if anything ever goes wrong. _

_Dad's good by the way, I can't believe he lived for this long on food from the diner! I think I'm going to start cooking some proper meals for him. I don't mind, I love cooking and Charlie really needs to lay off the steak!_

_I haven't got much to report to you right now, not much has happened, unless of course you want to know what I had for lunch yesterday, which I would be more than happy to relay to you._

_How's Phil? Are the baseball trials going well? How are you liking Jacksonville?_

_I'll come visit as soon as I can._

_Love Bella x_

_P.S. I'm not going to be checking my e-mails every second so calm down. If I don't reply for a few days, I'm probably just busy with school work or something. Don't freak out. Or just call my cell, I don't care. Just don't give yourself an aneurism!_

I read what I had wrote and clicked send.

I checked the time.

6.15pm

I still had over an hour until Charlie got home from work.

I opened an internet search page and entered "Forks"

_Forks, Washington – Wikipedia, the free encylopedia_

_Forks Washington Chamber of Commerse_

_Forks High School Chat Room_

Huh. Could be interesting.

I clicked the link and waited for the page to load. Charlie had an outdated broadband connection which seemed to take forever.

After what seemed like hours, the page finally loaded.

_Username?_

I racked my brain for something quirky. I always found it boring and unoriginal just using your name and birthdates. Or those girls that felt the need to write "babes" and "xo" in their screen names.

Perfect.

_Clair_De_Lunatic, _I typed and clicked enter.

The page loaded rather quickly. The background was a navy blue and all type was in gold. I guess that's the school colours.

_Go Spartans! 7 users online._

_Mikey_Boy_

_Jess3_

_Angela_

_LaurenMallory_

_Tyler._

_Shopaholic_

_Masochistic_Lion_

_MASOCHISTIC LION?! _Wow, that guy has serious issues!

Before I could even comprehend what was going on, a small screen popped up in the top left corner of the screen. It was a message from Masochistic_Lion.

Here goes nothing.

Masochistic_Lion : You like Debussy?

Clair_De_Lunatic : Erm, yes. I don't know much of his work, I only know my favourites.

Masochistic_Lion : Wow.

Clair_De_Lunatic : Excuse me?

Masochistic_Lion : No offence, but I didn't think that anyone at Forks High knew about classical music.

Clair_De_Lunatic : Well, currently they don't. I start there next week.

Masochistic_Lion : You're new? Wow. We don't really have new people at school. Me and my family are the latest editions and that was just over 2 years ago now.

_Great! I was going to stick out like a sore thumb, why did I ever agree to move?_

Clair_De_Lunatic : On a scale of one to ten, how bad do you think it'll be?

Masochistic_Lion : It really depends.

Clair_De_Lunatic : ...On?

Masochistic_ Lion : How well you deal with attention.

Clair_De_Lunatic : Hate it!

Masochistic_Lion : Then it'll be pretty bad. You'll be fine though.

Clair_De_Lunatic : I doubt it, but thank you for the vote of confidence.

Masochistic_Lion : Are you a junior or a senior?

Clair_De_Lunatic : Junior. You?

Masochistic_Lion : Junior too. We'll probably have classes together then.

Clair_De_Lunatic : Great! It'll be really good to know at least one person!

Masochistic_Lion : Well then, I'm your guy!

Clair_De_Lunatic : Is everyone friendly there or should I be terrified?

Masochistic_Lion : No, everyone's pretty friendly. I wouldn't really know, I only really spend time with my family. I have 4 siblings at Forks High. We're all adopted, so you probably wouldn't think we were family, but we're a very close unit.

Clair_De_Lunatic : I can't imagine what that would be like. I'm an only child, I've always wanted siblings though. It gets quite lonely.

Masochistic_Lion : If you want them so bad, by all means take mine!

Clair_De_Lunatic : Haha, I'm sure you'll miss them in the long run!

Masochistic_Lion : I wouldn't be too sure.

Clair_De_Lunatic : If you don't mind me asking, you said earlier that you and your family keep to yourself. Why is that? You seem like a really friendly person, so surely you'd have lots of friends!

Masochistic_Lion : It's just one of those things. People don't understand us.

Clair_De_Lunatic : Meaning...?

Masochistic_Lion : My family have a _special _relationship. None of us are actually related, and my two brothers and my two sisters are dating. People don't understand that there's nothing wrong with that, and they see it as this seedy, unnatural thing. But they are perfect for each other and at least I know that they're good enough for each other.

Clair_De_Lunatic : So why don't _you _have many friends?

Masochistic_Lion : Wow, someone's curious!

Clair_De_Lunatic : I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked.

Masochistic_Lion : No, it's fine. It's nice to talk to someone outside of my family for once. And as for your question, when people found out about my family, they started to exclude them, wouldn't really talk to them and would say really hurtful things, which was uncalled for. I could have ignored it all and kept my friends, but I just couldn't. They were hurting my family and they're the most important people to me. They insult my family, they insult me. And I'm wasn't going to stand for it. So sure, now I'm kind of fifth wheel, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Clair_De_Lunatic : That's really nice of you. I agree, some people can be so judgemental. And for the record, I'm really happy for your siblings. That they've found someone that's special to them, it's a natural thing and they can't help if they just happen to be adopted by the same people. I'm totally behind them, one hundred percent!

Masochistic_Lion : Really? Thank you.

Clair_De_Lunatic : Why are you thanking me? It's my honest opinion, and I'll be sure to set anyone straight that tries to convince me otherwise!

Masochistic_Lion : I think you're going to be the best thing to happen to this school for a long time!

Clair_De_Lunatic : You're making me blush!

_He really was! I could feel the heat radiating off my cheeks._

Clair_De_Lunatic : Confidentially, is there anyone I should watch out for?

Masochistic_Lion : Honestly? Mike Newton. His idea of a conversation starter is "It's women like you that stop me from becoming a monk"!

Clair_De_Lunatic : Right, got it. Mike Newton = Creep.

Masochistic_Lion : That's about right!

Clair_De_Lunatic : Anyone else?

Masochistic_Lion : Yes. My entire family.

Clair_De_Lunatic : You better watch out for I'll tell them what you said! Once I've met them of course.

Masochistic_Lion : You're bluffing!

Clair_De_Lunatic : I wouldn't bet on it ;)

Masochistic_Lion : Do I get to know your name at all, or do I get to refer to you as "The New Girl"?

Clair_De_Lunatic : Perhaps.

Masochistic_Lion : ....?

Clair_De_Lunatic : Fine. I'm Bella.

Masochistic_Lion : Welcome to Forks, Bella! I'm Edward.

Clair_De_Lunatic : Thank you Edward.

Masochistic_Lion : I wasn't aware of any new families moving into town. Did you just appear out of thin air?

Clair_De_Lunatic : Afraid not, buddy. I just moved in with my father. You probably know him, Chief Swan?

Masochistic_Lion : You're Chief Swan's daughter?!

Clair_De_Lunatic : Is that a problem?

Masochistic_Lion : YES. It's a very large problem.

Clair_De_Lunatic : And why would that be?

Masochistic_Lion : He owns a gun.

Clair_De_Lunatic : Ahh, well. True. That's a good point actually, wouldn't want anyone getting shot now, would we?

Masochistic_Lion : Definitely not. Although, if he ever needs some target practice, I'll be more than happy to send my brothers over.

Clair_De_Lunatic : I'll pass on the message :)

Masochistic_Lion : Let's play 20 questions!!

Clair_De_Lunatic : What are we? Five?

Masochistic_Lion : Don't be a spoil sport or I'm telling your Dad!

Clair_De_Lunatic : Fine. You start.

Masochistic_Lion : Do you have a boyfriend?

Clair_De_Lunatic : Well, seeing as I moved here 3 days ago, no.

Masochistic_Lion : Okay, that was a stupid question. Can I rephrase that?

Clair_De_Lunatic : Fine. Even though you are ruining the purpose of the game. It's 20 questions, not 21.

Masochistic_Lion : Well, I'm breaking all the rules now. Do you have a boyfriend wherever it is you moved from?

Clair_De_Lunatic : I'm from Phoenix, Arizona for your information. And no, I do not have a boyfriend back home. I was sort of a loner. My turn. Do you have a girlfriend?

Masochistic_Lion : Negative. Hobbies?

Clair_De_Lunatic : Reading, classics mostly. I'm a huge Austin fan. What do you look like?

Masochistic_Lion : I have green eyes, quite pale skin (I _do_ live in the cloudiest place in the continental US) and my hair is sort of a bronze colour.

Clair_De_Lunatic : Interesting combination.

Masochistic_Lion : Same question back to you.

Clair_De_Lunatic : I'm very plain. Brown hair, brown eyes, very pale.

Masochistic_Lion : I'm sure you're not. Why did you move to good ol' Forks?

Clair_De_Lunatic : My mother remarried and wanted to go travelling with her new husband. He's a minor league baseball player and they're in Jacksonville at the moment. Who adopted you?

Masochistic_Lion : Two very wonderful people called Carlisle and Esme. Carlisle's a doctor at Forks General hospital, and Esme is a interior designer, but she gave that up when we moved here. There's not much of a market for it here, so she keeps entertained by constantly redecorating our house in some way or another.

Clair_De_Lunatic : You love them.

Masochistic_Lion : They're great people.

Clair_De_Lunatic : I met your father the other day. I was in the emergency room, I'd fallen down some stairs and my father was convinced I had a concussion. I'd had worse, I'm a MAJOR KLUTZ! I trip over air, so I'm very well acquainted with hospital staff. Back home, I was on the nurse's Christmas card list.

Masochistic_Lion : Sounds like you'll be a regular with my father.

Clair_De_Lunatic : You can bet your money on it.

Masochistic_Lion : Why didn't you go travelling with your mother? Don't you like her husband?

Clair_De_Lunatic : Technically, that's two questions, but I'll let you off. No, Phil's great. A little young perhaps, but nice enough. He makes my mom happy and that's all that matters. I couldn't go with them because I had to go to school, basically. Nothing interesting. At first, my mom stayed home with me, but I could see that it made her unhappy and I didn't want to be the cause of the vast distance between the two newlyweds, so I decided that I should come to Forks and spend some quality time with Charlie. If you don't mind me asking, what happened to your parents?

Masochistic_Lion : My mother and father both died of Malaria. They done a lot of charity work in Africa and picked up the virus there. I was only 6 months old when they died and was adopted almost immediately by Carlisle and Esme, who were family friends.

Clair_De_Lunatic : I'm sorry.

Masochistic_Lion : It's fine. It was a long time ago now.

And so we continued talking, all night. It was almost 1am by the time we both said goodnight.

I learnt so much about him, his family, his likes and dislikes, favourite food, movies, music, books and everything about himself. And in turn, I told him about me. I felt like I was droning on and on about myself, but he actually sounded generally interested, so I continued with my blabbering.

I could feel a connection with him, just from this one online conversation, we had so much in common and I felt like I could tell him anything, which was absolutely crazy as I had never even met him in person. He had the most amazing mind, and dazzling personality. I couldn't help but wonder about his physical appearance, not that it mattered in the slightest.

The only sad part of our conversation was when I learnt that Edward would not be at school for my first few days, the weather was supposedly going to be nice and his family always go camping to make the most of the limited sun. I couldn't help but feel really disappointed when I heard that. I was looking forward to meeting him in person, but I guess I would just have to wait a few more days.

_Patience is a virtue_

_Whoever came up with that saying better be dead, or I'm going to hunt them down and shoot them myself,_ was my last thought, before I fell into a peaceful sleep.

* * *

**Monday, March 22nd 2009. Officially my first day at Forks High School.**

I was woken up by the sound of birds chirping. Something which I hadn't encountered since my first day here, almost a week ago now. I opened my eyes slowly, letting them adjust to the change in light.

Something was different.

_Eureka!_

It was the light, it was bright. I could actually see a strip of blue sky through my window. It was a freaking miracle!

Edward said it would be a nice day today.

Edward. He's not going to be in today.

And there went my happy mood.

I slowly lifted myself out of bed and trudged lazily to the bathroom. The house was silent so I was sure that Charlie had already gone to work. I turned the shower on and stepped back into my room to get my wash bag while the water heated up. I glanced at my alarm clock on bedside table on my way out of the door. 7.52am. Okay, so that gives me....

Wait! 7.52am!?!?

School started at 8.15am.

I'm going to be _so _late!

Crap! Crap! Crap! Crap!

I rushed through my shower, getting in and out in a matter of minutes. I ran to my room and grabbed the first outfit I could find, a plain white tee shirt and a pair of denim jeans. Not exactly the height of fashion, but I didn't care. I WAS LATE!

I grabbed my black converse as I ran to the door, with the keys to my new truck in hand. I stumbled my way to the front seat.

"Please work, please work," I muttered to myself again and again as I put the key in the ignition and revved the engine to life.

YES!

I pulled out of the driveway and began my journey to school. It was easy to find, as like almost everything else in this town, it could be found just away from the main road. I pulled into the only empty space in the lot, as far away to the main office as possible.

Just my luck.

I ran into the office, to be greeted by an old lady wearing an interesting waistcoat.

It looked like someone had thrown up on her.

"Hello dear, I'm Mrs Cope. You must be Isabella," she said in a soft voice.

"Yes, I'm _Bella." _

"Here's your timetable and a map of the school. You're running a little late, so you should just go straight to your second period, which starts in 5 minutes."

"Thank you," I replied as I rushed out of the door.

The buildings were easy to find, each building had a large number painted on the side. I walked into building six, where I was supposed to have Government.

"Hi, you're Isabella, right?" A baby-faced blonde boy asked. He had an eager look in his eyes and I didn't like the look of it.

"Yes, I'm Bella."

"Hi, I'm Newton, Mike Newton."

Who does he think he is? James Bond?

"You know, it's girls like you that stop me from becoming a monk," he continued.

I think I just threw up in my mouth a little, but at the same time, I tried to suppress the giggles that were threatening to escape. That was the same line Edward said he'd use last week!

I wanted to reply with some sort of witty comeback, but I didn't want to offend anyone on my first day, so I just blushed and began to walk into the classroom.

The day passed quite quickly. Morning lessons were okay, I had already covered ninety percent of the work when I was in Phoenix, so I didn't learn anything new, but the escorts I had to each class were very annoying.

Lunch was interesting, to say the least. I had Mike staring at me from across the cafeteria like a lost Labrador puppy. I seriously wanted to slap that look off his face.

After lunch, I had biology. I was shown the way by Angela who seemed really nice, but shy, which was fine because I was just as shy as her. I was assigned a table near the back, but was told that my partner was absent for a few days.

It must be Edward, or one of his family.

I did a internal happy dance at that news.

Gym was brutal. We were playing volleyball and I managed to injure 5 people. Mike Newton, included. Luckily I didn't hurt myself though, so it wasn't all bad.

Walking out of the gym however, was the definite highlight of my day. Not.

"Hey babe, wait up!" Mike called across the lot.

"My name is not 'babe'," I replied sourly. I was beginning to get very sick of Mr Newton.

"Can I borrow 70 cents?"

"What? No."

"Then how about 69? I'm sure you can offer 69."

You've got to be kidding me.

"So Mike," I whispered seductively, inching closer to him. Ugh. He made my skin crawl. "You wanna get laid?"

He nodded eagerly in reply.

"Then crawl up a chickens ass and wait." I spat as I stormed away.

When I returned from the grocery store, I was surprised to see Charlie home from work early. I was still pissed at Mike, so I stormed in, threw down the groceries and went in search of Charlie.

"Dad? You home?" I called.

"Yeah Bells, in here," I heard from the living room.

"Dad," I began in a sickly sweet voice. "Can you do me a really small favour?"

"What is it?"

"Can you possibly shoot Mike Newton for me?" I growled.

Charlie turned to look at me disbelievingly.

"W-w-what?"

"He's a sexist prick."

"Language Bella." Charlie sternly replied. "Other than Newton, how was your first day?" He swiftly changed the subject.

"Good thank you. I met a load of new people, Angela Weber? She was the nicest one there."

"Well then, that's good."

"Dad, I'm going to head up. It's been a long day. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

For the first time in my life, I fell asleep hoping for rain, which would bring me closer to Edward.

* * *

**Tuesday, March 23rd 2009. School Time Again.**

I had woken up early for school. I didn't want their first impressions of me to go completely down the drain so I thought it would be best if I tried not to be late today. I took a long relaxing shower and changed into one of my favourite outfits. If I'm going to be put through hell, I might as well do it comfortably.

And so I donned my high-waisted black skinny jeans, my white nirvana tee and a long black cardigan over the top. I knew trying to tame my hair was out of the question, the rain would just make it go all frizzy again, so I grabbed my favourite black trilby hat, and stuck it on in the hopes of giving it some protection from the endless drizzle.

I pulled on my favourite pair of boots too, to try and raise my mood a little. I wasn't one for designer clothes, but these had been a Christmas present from my mom last year and I adored them. They were black leather, with studded eagles on either side. And most importantly, they were flat, so I had no chance of breaking my ankles in ridiculously high heels.

I piled on some jewellery and headed out the door. It was raining today, and I was wishing that today would be the day that I finally got to meet to mysterious Edward.

I drove to school quickly and managed to swipe a parking space close to the front. Definitely an improvement from yesterday. Maybe today was going to be a good day.

I cautiously walked into the building, the rain had made the pathways slightly slippery. Just as I got to the door, I lost my footing and went flying to the floor.

Just great.

But instead of the hard concrete, I found myself suspended in the air, by two strong arms.

I was probably blushing from head to toe, and I averted my eyes from the person in question. But my god, he smelled good. It wasn't cologne, but a natural musky smell. He smelled like sex on legs!

I slowly dragged my head up to look into the face of a rescuer, and was shocked by what I saw.

_Green_.

Amazing green eyes.

I bit back a gasp at the colour. They were undoubtedly the most beautiful pair of eyes I had ever laid my eyes on.

_Hold on..._

_Bronze hair. Green eyes. Pale Skin._

_Edward?_

I could tell that he was thinking along the same lines by undeniably sexy crooked grin what lit up his face.

"Clair De Lunatic?"

"Masochistic Lion?"

His face lit up as my words and he pulled me into a close embrace.

_I think my time at Forks is about to get a hell of a lot better. _

* * *

_Read and review please! No flames please :D_

_Lois xo_


	2. Not an update! Important AN!

Hey everyone!

This isn't a update I'm afraid, and I'll keep this short because I know how annoying these AN's are.

I have received such amazing reviews and messages from you, my lovely readers, so first of all just a message to say thank you so much!

Secondly, I have received numerous messages and reviews asking for me to continue with this story and after a lot of deliberation, I have decided to do so. It's still summer (somewhat) and I'm not yet up to my eyeballs in coursework and exams so I would really like to continue.

Down to business...

1) I would really appreciate a BETA reader. I don't want to be too discriminatory and I'll be so grateful if ANYONE whatsoever would be willing to take this on, but I think it'll be great if you are American, only because the story will be set in Forks and I'm English, so not only do I know nothing about American culture but I also write in English and I just feel it shows a lack of continuity if a story supposedly written by an American is written from an English person. Does that even make sense? It's a bit confusing and long-winded even for me to understand!

2) As we speak, I am trying to figure out exactly where this story is going to go exactly. I have a few ideas and plotlines floating around in my head, but nothing concrete. If anyone has any ideas, PM me. I am a fair person and any ideas used will be credited thoroughly and fairly. I will not take credit for anyone else's work or ideas.

That's all for now, folks!

Depending on the feedback I get, it usually takes me 2 days max. to write a chapter so if I sort things out super quick, you'll probably get an update by the end of the week. No promises though!

Lois xo


End file.
